Zobrazujú sa príspevky s označením quarantine. Zobraziť všetky príspevky
Zobrazujú sa príspevky s označením quarantine. Zobraziť všetky príspevky

štvrtok 28. mája 2020

You will not lose muscle from day to day. After what time do you lose muscle, strength or power? | Steroids4U.eu

You will not lose muscle from day to day. After what time do you lose muscle, strength or power?


The current period is mostly associated with home training, when we try to knit a whip (sorry for the expression) at least thanks to rubber bands or exercises with our own body. Heavy weights, our training routines and a good number of one-arms, it's all up to date. That is, if you do not have your own booster. You may be afraid of losing your muscles, but fortunately science brings us quite nice news. What about our strength, flexibility, performance or muscle mass?

Muscles & strength

Muscles are quite resistant to atrophy and loss of strength. In this research, there were 20 men with an average age of 20 years and, of course, they enjoyed strength training. They completed a 4-week training program in the style: 4 weeks training + 2 weeks break from training + 4 weeks training. It turned out that two weeks of non-training did not cause loss of strength or muscle. In further research, they looked at 33 untrained participants. They compared 8 weeks of training (12-24 sets per quadriceps) with 8 weeks of reduced -volume training volume (only 8 sets per quadriceps). Although the volume of training was reduced by 50%, their strength was maintained. Ok, what about hypertrophy? They maintained most of their muscle mass even at a volume of only 8 series per muscle part (quadriceps) per week. That doesn't sound bad at all! In another study, they covered it for 3 weeks and the conclusions were similar. To quote this: "Evidence suggests that brief (approximately 3 weeks) non-training in people who are accustomed to exercising regularly does not cause significant muscle loss and, in addition, may experience an even greater stimulus in terms of hypertrophy after entering a training regimen."

Here, untrained individuals did 27 series on their feet almost to failure per week (3 exercises for 3 series, 3 times a week), while the training lasted 16 weeks. Later, this period was interrupted by a non-training period lasting 32 weeks (more than half a year), which had two approaches, and thus 2 groups. The first approach meant reducing the volume of work by 1/3 (ie to 9 series per week and practicing only once a week). The second approach meant reducing the volume of training by 1/9 (ie 3 series per week). In young individuals (20-35 years) this second approach caused the size of the muscles to be maintained, but in the older ones (60-75 years) it was a bit worse. More positive news for younger students! Similar results were recorded here, ie the loss of muscle did not take place, but we are already talking about the period of (only) three weeks mentioned several times.

Take a look at a systematic review of 27 studies in trained subjects. We talk about those who have been working for at least 3 years and participated in either some collegial or semi-professional sports activities. Simply trained athletes. The consensus from these data suggests that maximum strength may be maintained for up to three weeks of untraining, but will begin to decline significantly from about the fifth week. Other research confirms the results and speaks of a period of four weeks of inactivity, when the force is maintained and only then can it decrease. If you are a beginner, you also do not have to be extra worried. Research in this group of people is similarly positive, and the literature consensus speaks of a two to three week break, when strength is still maintained. Negatives are evident from about the fourth week. An old study on powerlifters with a training experience of about 8 years showed that their type II muscle fibers decreased by about 6% after two weeks of non-training, but their body weight remained the same.

At the end of this section, however, it should be added that there are individual (epi) genetic differences between muscle hypertrophy and atrophy, so we cannot completely generalize whether you and your buddy will be exactly the same. Probably not, and someone will be worse off. However, be sure to try at least some activity, because we have data that muscle loss is greatly accelerated when people are totally passive (bed rest or limb immobilization).

If you say that all this is bullshit and science deceives us, because you look smaller after only four days without a gym, calm down. During the break, the amount of glycogen in the muscles also decreases, so yes, you may look smaller, but it may not be a loss of muscle mass. And it is clear that the psyche will also play a role, when we will probably all put the "fact" that we are worse off, and then we will see ourselves in the mirror anyway.

Conclusions on strength and muscle mass in points:

We can maintain strength without training for about 3-4 weeks, but gradually it disappears during this period. Of course, only temporarily and we can take it back relatively quickly. It should not be forgotten that there is a difference between an ordinary exerciser and a powerlifter who has been systematically preparing for a competition and his personal record.
The muscles begin to atrophy after about 2-3 weeks, but at least for beginners they can return very quickly. Since we know that muscle memory exists, even in advanced exercisers, our "gainzzz" will return in a relatively short time.
If your efforts are high, you can train (even for months) with a smaller volume of training (by 33-50%) and maintain muscle mass.
During the first weeks, you look smaller due to a reduction in the amount of glycogen in the muscles, it is not a loss of lean muscle mass.

Aerobic performance, endurance or flexibility

When you're locked up at home, VO2max catches the most. The maximum rate of oxygen consumption (an indicator of aerobic performance) in trained individuals can experience losses of 6 to 20% and the time to depletion can be reduced by about 7 to 25% over two to four weeks. Endurance performance can be reduced by 4 to 25% after three to four weeks. When it comes to cardio, it seems to suffer more than our muscle mass or strength. Fans of crossfits and other endurance athletes should definitely not rest on the seat more than they should, but they should maintain more intense activity even during quarantine.

In terms of flexibility (flexibility means how muscles and joints are flexible), research shows that four weeks of untraining reduced the flexibility of the hip, torso, shoulder and spine by 7.4 to 30.1% for physical education students (men and women).

Conclusions on the cardio side and flexibility:
Endurance gradually decreases from 4% to 25% over 3-4 weeks
Maximum rate of oxygen consumption decreases by 6% to 20% in highly-trained athletes after about 4 weeks without training
Beginners can maintain endurance for at least 2 weeks without training
Flexibility decreases after about 4 weeks by 7 to 30%

How to put it all into practice?

Tired of training at home? Neither do I, believe me. The situation is not easy for anyone, but perhaps we are not capitulating, we are in it together. At least try to make a temporary exercise according to your current possibilities. It won't be a real nut, but it's always better than nothing. If you have a temporary fit at home, then use it, because you have more than 90% of people. However, if you exercise with rubber / your own body, they will cough up some specific repetitions. Ideally, you will focus on as many repetitions as you can to get close to failure. The question is, do you have any idea where your limit is, as you have not been used to training with this style yet. Well, be sure when it burns, you're still not at the end. It should be noted that for most (all) a certain daily physical activity is important. Not only for physical health, but also for mental health. Therefore, involve parents, siblings or children and do not just sit on the couch. Of course, everyone in terms of physical fitness.

And what about the diet? We will look at calories in the following article. Pay attention to mobility, flexibility and have enough sleep, which also has fingers in storing fat or losing muscle mass. Wash your hands, nose the drape… and… we are already on another topic :)

nedeľa 24. mája 2020

A method that will make you feel better mentally and physically, especially at a time when you are not doing well | Steroids4U.eu

A method that will make you feel better mentally and physically, especially at a time when you are not doing well


Everyone in life experiences situations where things do not go according to our ideas. In the context of a pandemic, this will be the case for most of us. Some people are worried that their expected competition has been canceled, someone has gotten pains due to a sudden change in training (when already running, so straight from 0 to 100 km per month), someone is dealing with more serious things such as loss of income, job loss or not being able to see family. Even well-meaning advice from friends sometimes doesn't have to relieve us. Maybe you're listening "head up", "I don't understand what you're dealing with, imagine what the Philomene" would happen to you, "or your friends will still say that you have to look for positives in the situation. I don't mind, someone may be at a stage where it works like this, but you may feel that you need something else.

Maybe now you don't want to jump in the room for online aerobics lessons or improve bends on the door frame, maybe you'd prefer to crawl somewhere in the corner and not call anyone. If you experience feelings that you do not know and do not want to trust, you can relax your psyche and help your health in a relatively simple way. And then you will enjoy those folds with gusto.

If you suffer from more serious mental problems or have been diagnosed with any of the mental illnesses, please consult the following recommendations with your doctor or psychologist.

Expressive writing

One of the simple ways to help yourself from unpleasant feelings has been described and researched since the 1980s by psychology professor James W. Pennebaker. He has devoted his research career to the relationship between health and the perception of feelings and thoughts that are part of human experience. Boom experienced expressive writing in the 1980s and 1990s, so I will present most of the studies from this period. Although expressive writing seems to be rediscovered by many researchers, methodologically the studies are so different that we prefer to look at the basics first.

The technique we are talking about is known as expressive writing. Pennebaker's effect is similar to the functioning of psychotherapy - to admit a problem, to describe it well, to perceive the causes and consequences well and to confide in the accompanying feelings, it has a healing effect. Proponents of the common factor theory might argue that the basic co-operative factor common to all therapies is the therapeutic relationship. However, therapeutic care may not be available to everyone, and even therapists do not do magic, but have a repertoire of useful techniques that we can involve ourselves in caring for our health. Pennebaker has been researching a way to help more people without an expert.

What does expressive writing look like?

The basic guideline used in the studies is that it is enough to write 4 x 15 minutes about an unpleasant experience or problem, while the respondents had to use all the time to write (they started again when it was no longer possible). One study even suggests using only 2 minutes. The days may follow each other, but according to a meta-analysis, it seems more effective to devote yourself to writing once a week. Although we are talking about writing, in some studies they have used dictaphone recording, and the spoken form of expressing feelings has similar results to the written one.

Don't know what to write about? Any revelation of feelings seems to be effective. However, as the Pennebaker report describes, the choice of topic can affect the outcome. For example, if students write about problems related to their studies, their grades will improve more than if they write about their traumatic experiences. So you can think about which area of ​​your life you want to improve and write about it. It doesn't seem necessary to go too far into the past, even though you can include it in the story. Therefore, focus more on what you are experiencing in the present.

There are different tutorials on how to write and each can lead to a slightly different result. For example, when you write about physical survival, you can improve physical well-being, you can improve social well-being by writing about feelings, and you can get to problem solving by looking for ways to deal with the current situation.

The effect of writing on health and life

Subjective survival was measured by self-assessment questionnaires. Despite the fact that the writing experience was perceived as unpleasant, the respondents considered the activity to be meaningful. Compared to control participants who wrote on another topic, there is a long-term improvement in mood and a reduction in the symptoms of depression and negative survival after expressive writing. The meta-analysis summarizes the results of research, arguing that writing about emotional topics is associated with a significant decrease in subjective suffering.

In order to look at the practical side of things, there were also changes in the level of behavior. In one research, they divided high school freshmen who are subject to great stress into two basic groups - optimists and pessimists, according to personality tendencies. For both personality tendencies, students who write about emotionally significant topics receive better grades at school than those who write about a trivial topic. Optimists have the advantage that self-regulatory technology works well for them. The instruction in this case is: after "listing" from the problems regarding the study, formulate plans for how to handle the situation. For pessimists, however, this technique does not work very well for optimists.

Workers also benefited from expressive writing. Those who lost their jobs were employed more quickly in the months following the study and a significantly larger proportion of them were employed. The condition that separated the successful from the less successful was to write for five consecutive days of 20 minutes on deeply personal topics related to job loss, while others wrote in person about their normal activities and plans for employment. Interestingly, this success was probably not related to higher motivation, as the first group did not make more contacts with employers than the second. Respondents may have just been more relaxed, which is never to the detriment.

In the same study, the first group was found to have consumed less alcohol 3 months after the study. However, according to an overview of older studies, health behaviors (smoking, exercise, alcohol) are not as influenced by writing as they are in other areas, which may be due to the fact that health behaviors are more about commitments than emotions. Nevertheless, it is an interesting finding that there is a connection between writing and medical records. Compared before the research, after expressive writing, patients used the services of a doctor less often (which was valid for 2 months, 6 months and in one study even 1.4 years).

Writing on emotionally important topics also had a positive effect on immune function. The researchers observed an effect on the growth of T-lymphocytes, improved antibody production during vaccination, and a reduction in the frequency of visits to the medical facility. The study particularly benefited those who wrote about topics they hide from others. According to the authors, actively confronting one's (traumatic or unpleasant) experiences can have two mechanisms. On the one hand, there will be a better understanding of survival, framing of the event and its assimilation. In the second mechanism, as we know from psychosomatic theories, active retention of behavior is associated with higher activity of the autonomic nervous system and can lead to disease in the long run. In a more detailed analysis in this study, a change in perspective was actually observed in the individual essays over time.

One of the unpleasant consequences of expressive writing is a worsened mood after writing, while after writing a depersonalized essay the mood may improve slightly, after writing an emotionally charged essay there may be a short deterioration in survival, manifested e.g. anger and unrest. According to the above findings, however, it seems that writing brings more benefits in the long run.

Expressive writing can be specifically more effective in cultures where expressing individual emotions is considered weakness or inappropriateness (verified in China; Ji, Lu & Wang, 2019), and in situations where one does not have enough support with loved ones or friends (according to Ji, Lu & Wang, 2019). These studies are aimed at respondents with cancer, so it is not possible to simply generalize the results to a wider population, but we can estimate from them that if you like to keep your experience to yourself, it can help you all the more.

We see that writing is effective for both healthy and sick, unemployed, and first-year students. A new study on athletes suggests that the intervention may also help athletes cope with injury. The effect of writing is more pronounced on mental well-being and physiological activation than on overall functioning or health-related behavior. According to the meta-analysis, the magnitude of the effect of writing is medium to large. This is already a significant effect, obtained across studies and it would be a shame to overlook it.

How is it possible that it works?

Theoretically, several explanations are possible, there may be:

recognizing feelings and creating space for their reflection
clarifying problems and solving them spontaneously
increased spontaneity and vigilance in social situations - we are more attuned to others and ready to interact
better perception of oneself and others, perception of events in a new light
according to a more elaborate, cognitive theory, writing in thoughts allows stressful events to be reorganized, thereby reducing the physiological activation that is associated with inhibition and obsessive thinking. Writing helps to observe your thoughts, express them and control your emotions. This can create a sense of self-efficacy and resilience, and thus a sense that stressors are manageable.
And what is the effect on overall functioning and behavior? If you are more mentally well, you are more likely to attend classes and get a better grade. You will be better at the interview and probably easier to get a job…

What to take from it

Psychologists have long emphasized that expressing emotions is necessary for physical and mental health. Brief, repeated interventions involving the expression of emotions can affect overall health, mental well-being, and overall functioning months after that. In the article, we have shown how this can happen and that it is probably related to the natural human need to talk about unpleasant events. Many times, however, expressing our feelings may seem unsocial to us, so don't be afraid to reach for paper, pen and timer.

Remember that:

Once a week is better than daily
Just 15 minutes and use the whole time
it is advisable to determine in advance the topic you will be writing about
being worse for a while means you're doing well
writing in no way replaces regular exercise and a good diet in terms of health;)
Tip: look at what you wrote (but don't analyze, otherwise tear it apart!;) And look for words how to understand, realize. As they begin to occur more frequently, they may indicate a more pronounced shift.

štvrtok 2. apríla 2020

5 reasons why I will be after quarantine a better fitness guy | Steroids4U.eu

5 reasons why I will be after quarantine a better fitness guy


Look, I'm also annoyed that I can't go to my favorite gym, and that we now have more limited opportunities to do sports than before. I was there almost every day, I took the people at the gym as the color of my normal day, some even as friends, and I really miss the coffee at the bar. But I dislike the eternal cribs about how we can do nothing now or not have a baking tray ready for a summer holiday. Honestly, we'll be happy to get to Machacha, let alone think that we'll be rolling somewhere on the beach this year. This is more at the level of utopia than the real plan. Maybe another year, and we'll be fine.




But the point is not to bitter. We are a pessimistic nation. And so I bitterly understand the bittering around the closed fitness. It's in us. After all, something very positive can be seen in every situation, and so is it here. So in my spare time, which I have now more than I would like, and I feel a bit like Tom Hanks in the Castaway, I tried to think what it would be like when it was over. And you know what? I thought we'd be better. I'm not saying leaner, I guess not. Well, maybe muscular, but why are we going to be fitness better and tuned to new challenges and achievements? Believe me, it will end once, and the post-apocalyptic time will ask, "What have you been doing at home for days?" Here it will be shown…

We will appreciate every moment in the gym and we will not be a "fitness fool" - we took the gym for granted, with a poisoned face and an expression of an unbelievable tough guy not stumbling on the fitness center every morning and evening biblical flogging on the cross.

The gym was such a matter of course that we bothered when someone accidentally locked it up at 3 pm, or, on the contrary, that it was closed for New Year's Day for half a day and you couldn't leave your important training at 8am… ” How could anyone afford this, after all, you have to train and your ideal time is around 9am in the morning. Evening doesn't make sense anymore ... and there are too many people. I hate people… even though they actually have the same goal as me ”.



Sorry, I got a little carried away. But look at it differently. I can imagine that day (and I firmly believe that you will dream of it as well) who, as yet, tells the story of Middle-earth. The day the rainbow lights up over the gym door, the unicorn runs over, kills Chuck Norris, blows the homophilic rainbow, and opens the gym or fitness center door with the unmistakable iron smell. Your gym will be tidy, improved (or at least it will seem, after all, you got used to two dumbbells in the corner of your apartment) and it will smell somewhat familiar. You'll be home again…

Suddenly you realize that it is not so commonplace. That you could smile at the fitness center staff because you see it after a long time and she's the one who now gives you the chance to make your dreams come true. You will be pleased to be able to touch the barbell more than the dozens you have had since your childhood, load it and fold it without thinking what you could still stick to the axis in the apartment. And also that you can put it in the easel, put a towel on the bench, take a shower. All this luxury.

And even seeing people who missed so many of your dumbbell in front of the home mirror. And you are actually quite happy. Maybe it'll give you a little tear in your eyes, get ready… you've met your family. It just will be different, better and you may appreciate the iron comfort more.

We will find out that it is different - one major advantage is the iron absence. We realize that we don't have to be locked in the gym 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and that there are actually other movements of our body, not just a single-articulated biceps stroke. That our body is actually quite functional and can cope with a much more demanding composition of movements.

All of us are going to pull out the old dumbbells, expanders, towels and old broomsticks. We went through a lot of fun and maybe a little bizarre trainings of youtuber and fitness gurus who taught us how to work with our own weight and weird tools, from the canister to the pan. And we may have found that it hurts, grows, that our muscles react to us, and surprisingly, they stick to the creeping fat layer.

I understand, not every one of us can do it, and not everyone suits and still grumbles that it's useless. But maybe we will be able to move some of the workouts to the workout pitch, out to the air or to the front yard. I know not, but maybe ...

Maybe this will make the clumsy hulks a more functional athlete who already knows he can lunge in a gym other than the hallway. Or that sometimes, when not going to the races, it can easily stretch the skeleton on the bike and it will have an interesting effect.

Simply, we become more complex and maybe even more creative athlete. And yet that is part of fitness life.

Are we going to be rested, sleepy, and busy - do you sleep every day until the time you would have thought heretical before, and actually it doesn't bother you at all? I also. Then I sit on the bed for a long time, go through social networks and mails, have a coffee and consider going back to bed. Most of the time it doesn't give me that, but those days are suddenly lazy, sometimes taking a nap at work after lunch, remodeling it again, and so on. I'm a little scared that I will be endlessly lazy after the quarantine. But I believe (and that's the main thing) that my body will relax enough. The muscles, ligaments and tendons will recover and will be able to resist strength training and new impulses to the full. After all, during the year we burden the body from all sides and constant relaxation from training we will not experience what is a year. Such a deload comes in handy and there's no need to worry about losing any muscles. The muscle protein loses without any load after about 3 weeks, and you will surely throw some weight with a dumbbell or a free axis in the garden anyway.



In addition, we can use this long sleep to set new sleep stereotypes to aid hormonal production. At night, we are significantly producing growth hormone, up to ¾ of the daily amount, as well as a significant amount of testosterone. As you know, and I referred to it in one of my articles, the recommendations say you should sleep about 7.5 hours. Now is the perfect time. It's good to try what it does to your body. So your hormones stabilize, and as soon as you let them in a little iron, it promotes a quick return back in a better rested condition.

We will have a strong motivation to turn the fat and still "humiliate" the summer - we probably will not lie. Motivation sometimes lags a little behind everyone. I have often read fitness complaints about “how they are motivated”, “how they do not know how to move” or “that they do not want to practice 5 times a week”. Sometimes I can't even believe the endless crying. However, I believe it is over now. (unless we find an excuse elsewhere)

In my opinion, motivation will now be taken care of. And not only by suddenly being able to return to an iron game that itself is liberating and motivating. (Maybe I see it in a similar streak as in January.) But suddenly it begins to approach home, when we want to look "kind of better". Maybe someone will allow us to go swimming in the summer, to the pond, or maybe in the autumn to the races. And we certainly do not want to stand there and bitterly blame the fact that we did not manage to “pull it back” after the Koron crisis and start to cluster. We will now have two or three months to kick in and throw in the unsightly Netflix specialists with some extra pounds, in the fitness of our healthy fitness version, and to represent the physically healthiest community of the company again. And that's a nice motivation.

We will be more educated (at least I hope) - surely you are spending a lot of your time now in education and in shifting your knowledge. We now have a unique opportunity to advance our theoretical skills in nutrition, training and supplementation, which we then use in practice to hunt for a new better 'I'. Let's take this opportunity to leave Netflix as a fun evening. Because education really makes us a better fit. The proportion of how much we know theoretically is always transferable to practice. This applies not only to nutrition but also to training, regeneration and other aspects related to fitness lifestyle. Turn your free time into an opportunity to educate, all parents would surely tell you that after they now represent teachers in the home, they have taken their knowledge to the next level. Mainly in chemistry and biology. And even that will come in handy.

So, as I mentioned at the beginning. Let's not fuck, don't burn, don't want to "piss," just wait and get better. One guarantee is true. Once it is over and we get out of the house with new enthusiasm, the streets will be full of people and suddenly it will be so cheerful even in the fitness center. I believe that fitness people can always manage and make the most of every life experience.

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